Sawtooth Mountain Clinic’s phone lines were down for a short time on Tuesday, December 26 because of a problem with Century Link telephone service.
911 emergency calls to Cook County Law Enforcement were also off line until about 10 a.m. when most phone service was restored.
The temporary outage was believed to be caused by a failed switch in Duluth. However, not all Century Link customers restored full service. On Wednesday Valerie Marasco, Cook County director of Emergency Management Services and public information officer reported, “Century Link is still working to isolate the trouble with toll access in certain areas of the county (calling between exchanges). At this time, we do not have an estimate on how long this will take to restore until they isolate the trouble and resolve any issues. We will provide updates when they become available.”
In an effort to provide 911 services during the outage, all Cook County fire halls were staffed with personnel equipped with Allied Radio Matrix for Emergency Response (ARMER) radios. Those radios are used to make calls to Cook County law enforcement dispatch. Deputies, equipped with ARMER radios, also patrolled the county on the lookout to offer help if needed.
Century Link users could use texting to make an emergency call for help, but Cook County Law Enforcement advises using 911 text messaging only in a true emergency.
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